Review: Gesture of liberation

Dictionary of British Sign Language/English edited by David Brien, Faber and Faber, pp 1084, £14.99 pbk

It is a sad reflection of the insecurity of most governments throughout history that at some time or another they have attempted to suppress linguistic differences. In the case of the deaf community across the world - notwithstanding the fact that the motivation behind this particular suppression may have been benign - this has been the cause of much mental, and even physical pain. As recently as the 1970s, deaf children, myself included, had their hands slapped and tied behind their backs as they struggled with the Herculean task of reproducing the sounds of, for them, an unnatural language that they had never heard.

Mercifully attitudes have changed in recent years. Nonetheless, the struggle to win recognition for British Sign Language (BSL) as the first and authentic language of an estimated 50 000 people ...

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